Heroes Never Die
by Celestia Ruby Calhoun
Summary: When a mission goes wrong, Hiro finds himself behing saved from having his memories deleted by a mysterious game character. Now he'll see games are more than they look while helping the arcade's heroes in a mssion to save his friends, the arcade and the whole city, but things are far from easy when this team includes, Tadashi Hamada and Vanellope and someone is trying to kill him
1. Radio Kids

**I don't own Big Hero 6, Wreck-It Ralph, Sonic, Mario or other game that may come up on my way from here to the end of this story. I do own mostly OCs through, but Candi is owned by TCKing12.**

 **Sorry if anyone sounds too OOC, I'm still new to this Big Hero 6 thing...**

 **Welcome to my new crossover!**

* * *

"And now we're up with a super show: Super Heroes Kids!" Said the little girl on TV, cheerfully.

She had dark brown hair stuck in bunches and vivid green eyes. Her name was Jessica to where Hiro Hamada could remember and once again the teenager found himself wondering mentally why he watched the program.

Not that he did so often. As far as he knew, the channel itself aired just over a week ago. Radio Kids was the name, despite being on TV, in addition to the radio programs.

Nevertheless, Radio Kids did justice to the name as he didn't remember having seen an adult there. That was the presenter along with another girl whom he didn't remember the name, Penelope and Sabrina. All they looked like having no less than nine or more than ten.

His first encounter with the channel was completely accidental, there was a super-heroes cartoon overnight, both heroes and villains were just children between seven and twelve years old, but the show didn't seemed so childish, it was the typical heroes show, with special powers and advanced technology, epic battles and aliens.

Then he began to overlook a few more programs in the channel. There were competitions, some even ridiculous, some just for fun, but there were fights and a lot of other things. It also had music programs (music parodies mostly), secrets and playthroughs of games (arcade games mostly, but sometimes there were news and tips for console games too), also racing and sports, art shows and cooking and even bot fights!

It had everything there, except adults, at least not on camera, though it seemed more than simple acting, all programs had a cartoonized style and were turned to games, music and superheroes. There looked like having just a few kids working, during the shows, who changed appearances slight to look new, except during Super Heroes' Kids

That was the first time Hiro actually sat to watch the channel on purpose. He'd already realized the best programs and news aired during the night, during the day had reruns and some children cartoons coming from other channels.

The boy found himself looking more closely at the characters that night. Midnight Blaze, in her fox armor, smart and almost never depended on her superpowers, preferring the technology created by her brother, always in her floating-skates, running like the wind by the scenarios... Then there were Cherry Ruby, Candle Cake, Midnight's brother, Silver Lightning and a boy he didn't remember the name.

Silver was the kind of hero more like Hiro and his friends, even his super-powers were generated by technology, the boy even wore a suit more armor-like, except of keeping with its role of super-hero.

And yes, those names were always unusual like that, sounding strange even to super-heroes.

"I can't believe Midna has done something like this!" Said Cherry upset. What the girl did Hiro had no idea; it seemed to be continuing from something, probably last day's episode. "She was always so good and smart..."

"Maybe she has a good reason." Candle said, always optimistic.

"That's what we'll find out." The unknown boy murmured.

"If anyone knows what's going on is T.H." Silver said quietly. "He's the closest friend my sister has, she always tells him everything."

The quartet entered a small electronics store down the street, where they were greeted by a robot attendant, humanoid form, it greatly resembled Hiro himself.

"Hello, guys!" The robot welcomed. "Came to buy something?"

"In fact, H1R0, we came to talk to T.H." Cherry said.

"Has seen my sister ultimately?" Silver asked.

"H1R0!" Hiro exclaimed, surprised. Why the robot looked like him and had a version of his name?! And T.H…

The robot Hiro on TV led the group to a place in the underground of the store, where another little older boy was working on a mechanical design.

"T.H we have visitors!" He announced cheerfully. "It's not often people come here for more than shopping and repairs." He said to the group.

"Well, we promise to come here just to visit one of these days." Candle smiled. "But today we are also in a hurry."

"Well, well, if it is not the young Candle!" T. H. He turned and Hiro almost had a fit. The boy was a younger vision of his brother, Tadashi! "Jubi, G.O and Cloud, good to see you! Come looking for Black V., right? Unfortunately she just came by earlier, it seems she and Blue were in some kind of secret mission. It has something to do with the news on TV?"

Hiro jumped up and turned the TV off. Cartoon or not, he wouldn't stand to be seeing his brother and a robot copy of himself TV. What was that after all?!

What else did he know about Radio Kids? Unfortunately nothing, but all that relate to games reminded him of Wreck-It Ralph, one of Mickey Mouse studios' animated films.

Where did the TV and radio signal come from? It was all a mystery that he intended to unravel.

 **-KK- -KK-**

Hiro told his friends everything about the show just next day, everyone, but he had just Fred by his side, everyone else tried to talk him out of what they would call obsession or even paranoia. Still he had a chance to investigate.

It wasn't that often he and his friends would choose a place like that as a hangout. It was Honey Lemon's idea; she said it was a good place to play games. Not exactly her favorite pastime - she hadn't come there for a few weeks now - but she really liked games, through they would say not as much as Fred, who had his own games home.

Litwak's Family Fun Center... Tadashi usually took Hiro there when they were younger. The young genius would also remember the place from Wreck-It Ralph. It was strange an animation movie be based around a real place and real games, but still it was just a movie. Why was him even taking his time about that? It was all because of Radio Kids?

He saw a friend he'd meet at school. What was her name again? Something candy related... Candi, that was it! The girl had dark brown hair, tan colored skin and emerald green eyes.

They weren't that close, in fact, but recently the girl seemed to be very interested in him and his projects. The boy thought she needed something but she never asked.

The boy decided to approach, but stopped as he heard the girl talking to her watch.

"Oh, finally you did reply!" Candi exclaimed, happily but low.

"Yeah, T.H just got our connection back. How are things going?" A female voice asked from the watch.

T.H? Again? Hiro hid himself and made a signal to his friends not to approach as well.

"I located him, will you come to help?"

"If they get out, I'll try to follow. But try to stop them the best as you can. Is the Chaos Ring still working?"

"I don't know. I've never used it. I call you if it's not."

She turned the communicator off and entered the building. The group decided to follow; it was where they were going to, after all.

"There is something strange around here." Honey Lemon said, thoughtfully looking around when they entered. She couldn't put a finger on it, but something on that games looked out of place.

They walked separate ways looking for their favorite games, or just something that called attention. She hadn't to go far or even to pay to find out what exactly disturbed her. As she passed by Sonic Extreme Speed, she noticed two things: First, the black and blue hedgehog girl she'd never seen before, that maybe could be a new character, as she'd never seen that particular Sonic game before, and second she saw Sonic and Knuckles a little ahead, both not looking as old as they should and it was easier to notice by their height that didn't look right in comparison to Tails as the little fox reached them on the drifting race.

Walking a little more, Honey could see another game she'd never seen before and also looked strange: Super Mario Stars, just as the current player reached a brief cutscene in which Mario meet a little human boy she'd never seen before. The hero himself was also a kid Mario, but not the baby from one of the home console versions, just looking around ten years old or another age from one year younger to two years older.

She'd seen briefly a few shows in Radio Kids and quickly related the two, so decided the best game to begin if she wanted to know anything would be Sugar Rush. Besides, it was one of her favorite games. But maybe Sugar Rush would be normal, as they'd always been kids.

In fact it was pretty normal, a few new characters and a few different looks, but nothing that couldn't be taken by an update. But she couldn't been mistaken, she'd seen a brief blue light on the kart's panel, even with the racer blocking her vision of its source and heard a low buzzing sound.

Not long after it, Go Go was playing the Sonic game Honey Lemon had passed by with the same hedgehog girl - in fact named Vortex - when she noticed a strange movement as Vortex raised an arm near to her face and there was this blue light, like an hologram or something, the quick and low buzzing sound and, for a moment, it was like she'd lost control of the character, but quickly everything went back to normal.

Just, she noticed the anthro girl had a silver watch on her left wrist.

And no longer after, Hiro was on his second round in Hero's Duty. The game was all wrong. First of all, the characters were kids! Little soldiers, no more than twelve years old, even younger than him, guns looking smaller to match, but everything else seemed in place. Except for the second thing he'd noticed, the brief cutscene of Calhoun's backstory they'd get near the final level was cut off of this version. Made sense, but still looked strange.

And why was him even there, playing, if he should be looking for answers? But something attracted him to play that game... Was it because the game was connected to that movie, which could be somehow connected to the mysterious channel which was the center of all that mystery?

The younger characters didn't match a game like Hero's Duty, with its post-apocalyptical looking background, mechanic, mutant, insectoid enemies and war-designed armors and heavy weapons, but it matched Radio Kids. Sergeant Calhoun just looked like the police head on the super-heroes show, maybe the other soldiers being the rest of her squad.

No. It was all madness, the coincidence was getting up to him, just that. Maybe he should enjoy a few more games and go home, admit he'd been mistaken...

But so it happened, like to tell him he wasn't mistaken, to tell him not to give up, but it almost did otherwise.

It was rare you getting a good look of the other soldiers in Hero's Duty, but always the same they were fighting the Cy-Bugs, a few of them killed by them... But that one didn't, he just ran away and quickly disappeared from view. But was the sergeant's angry call that made Hiro sees he was right, something strange was up...

"Hamada!"

 **-KK- -KK-**

"Baymax!" Tadashi Hamada heard the call through his communicator. Just one character in the entire arcade used that nickname as she said he was muttering something about that in his sleep when she found him and a call during game hours...

He knew he would be in deep trouble if they found out, but he couldn't risk anyone hearing. It was why he was there as his friend said, for causing trouble, a kind of punishment. BLACK V. promised him she would call just for something of high importance, so the boy put the call in waiting mode and ran to a safer place.

"BLACK V. what's wrong?"

"Look up at what we got!" The girl on the communicator beamed.

A screen showed up in front of him, focused on a shocked boy, with messy black hair and light brown eyes, which muttered an "impossible" to himself before walking away.

The camera went off and Tadashi heard the game had ended; Calhoun would be after him in no time if given her the chance. But he couldn't worry with it. His friend discovery was really important, something that could cause a change in all their systems.

"Hiro..." He muttered. "BLACK V., meet me at the lab after closing time." The boy said on the communicator before turning it off.

It had to have a reason, and together they could find it out, he just knew it!

 **-KK- -KK-**

Hiro couldn't believe what he'd heard. Once it was a coincidence, twice it turned out highly questionable, but a third?

T.H looked exactly like Tadashi and had the same initials, his bot looked a lot like Hiro and had a similar name, now that... He would call it a glitch, in Hero's Duty, with the name Hamada... Whoever was behind Radio Kids and that hacked Arcade owned him answers. But, for now, he just wanted to go home, for some strange reason his head was aching a little and his energy was being mysteriously drained as he tried to think...

"Hiro!" Wasabi's voice broke through his mind a little painfully. "Something wrong?"

"Later." The young boy muttered. "What's up?"

"There were two spider cameras running around the arcade, Fred caught one but the other disappeared into the office."

"You was right, Hiro, something is up around here." Honey Lemon joined them, whispering, her gaze on the two man not far away. "The arcade's owners are looking strange at us since we arrived."

The boys also followed her gaze to the twins and noticed they were really starring back, looking suspicious, but Hiro had nothing to say against them, all he knew was that they were somehow related to Mr. Litwak and in charge of the place since he'd fallen ill. It hadn't been about a month already... sounded suspicious, but there was nothing to prove as well.

"Go get the others; we talk back at the Café." Hiro sighed, turning away from the duo. So there was something suspicious hidden at their office... Maybe the camera had the answers.

For now he would wait and process the little he and the team found out, so he would decide if paying a visit to that office was necessary or worth the trouble.

Anyway, the same feeling that attracted him to that game was giving him the idea he should be home. Unfortunately his plans had to be changed as Candi approached them, looked a little worried.

"Can we talk in private?" She asked.

He knew she knew something by what he'd heard early, so Hiro nodded and followed her outside.


	2. The Storm Prince

**It is about time I update this story, but it was really hard to finish this chapter. I wrote a lot of different scenes until I decided myself for one I was more than slight satisfied with.**

 **I don't own Wreck-It Ralph or Big Hero 6 and Candi is not my OC, but the other OCs are. Alice is actually from my own original stories.**

* * *

They had no idea where were them going. Candi's gaze flashed from her watch to Hiro and his friends from time to time, but she was complete silently during the trip, so were the others.

"So... About T.H., Who's him, actually?" Was Hiro's only try of talking with her.

"Not here." Candi asked, looking around slight worried. She would blame Black V for scaring her off, but the girl's score of being right was higher than mostly others. Everyone would ask why and raise a lot of theories: luck charm; a special programming trait; hunter instinct or a glitch of mind altering... Apparently none of them was right. But Candi wouldn't question, she knew she would get no answer.

Honey Lemon wanted to point out the girl looked a lot like one of the new Sugar Rush characters, but she didn't. Maybe having that entire story explained would be good for Hiro.

Fred was also suspicious about the girl. Little innocent and mysterious, she was more like a bite, come looking for help, just to pull them into a trap. But there was no sense in pointing it out and maybe trigger the trap while they were powerless against an unknown villain.

"Why did you bring us here?" Hiro asked, confuse as they finally reached their destination. "I thought you said something about 'particular' talk"

"Here" was the strangest place he thought he'd even seen. It looked like an odd castle outside, but inside was a modern mix of music and games, with a few shops, traditional food and cosplayers everywhere, as far as they could see. There was a big arcade, paintball field, 3D cine and a lot more.

"Kind of. You all are invited, but it's still a secret that shouldn't go anywhere outside here and the Arcade has many ears, both friends and enemies, plus a few curious, and I live too far. About this place... I have two friends who used to invite me over to the races. I'm not really a fan of Bot Fights, but my friends' aunt runs the place and that's what is running today so I got us a room. No one will bother or hear us there."

They began to cross the casino, no one really paid attention to them, but Candi felt a cold shiver running down her spine. Something was wrong… She quickly looked around and her gaze meet a pair of blue eyes of a young boy not too far.

"Is all this legal?" Wasabi asked.

"Usually no, at least here in Sanfransokyo… But this place runs under Starlit's laws, so it actually is."

"And what you need our help for?"

"It's not exactly needing help, but it's a menace to the city as well, if not to the whole world, we need to work together in order to stop it. You asked about T.H. so you saw Radio Kids." It wasn't a question, but Hiro nodded. "It's a signal we created to stop our enemies, but it's just a matter of time before they find a way to get around it."

"Wait! You're making no sense right now." Go Go stopped her.

"Oh, right. Let me start again from the beginning."  
She and Vortex had rehearsed everything, why was it so hard now? "But first, its better we enter."

They were in a room above the bleachers surrounding an arena. It was bigger than most reserved, which were appeared empty, closed behind gray curtains, but the seats down were crowded. The arena served, as Candi said, as the scene of a Bot Fight, as Hiro had never seen before.

One of the fighters wore half silver mask, but looked young, although his hair was storm gray, with golden, lightning bolt strands. His blue eyes had a wicked gleam, like his smile.

His robot had a more humanoid appearance, almost human-sized, in a kind of shining armor, and carried a sword that glowed, charged with electricity and the young man did not wear any kind of control, as was common in that kind of fights. Instead, he just raised his hand and the strange veins on his glove flashed.

The other robot, a kind of dragon attacked with three jabs, followed with the blade of his tail without the boy and his robot even moving. Then he closed his hand, the light on his glove even more intense, and the electricity that surrounded his robot's sword seemed to increase. The robot dodged the fourth blow and stuck the sword into the dragon's neck, which let out a roar, electricity flashing through the gap until he fell, its eyes lifeless.

"The winner! The Prince of Storm!" Announced a little girl, around nine or ten years old, wearing a blue hat with a pair of rabbit ears. "Okay, next fight in five minutes. The Prince will face the actual champion, Scarlett! Place your bets!"

Candi also noted the boy who won the fight. There was something that drew her attention, but not in a good way. The little racer made a discreet sign to her friend on the platform, which didn't go unnoticed to the group of heroes.

"What is going on?" She did not identify from whom came the question, still distracted watching the boy, who followed Bunny with the look of a cunning hunter.

"Nothing. It's just my friend, Bunny. She is the daughter of the owner. If you are talking about the fight, it's just the end of a championship. They say that here is much more exciting than those small scaled street fights, but is less busy because of the work and cost of building the robots. But the traditional fights at night have much more flood, since the only place it is where everything is allowed, but it is no longer Lice who're organizing. But back to our problem…" She took a deep breath, it was easier not wanting for them to ask. My name is Candy Di Caramello Owens and I'm a half-code child, princess from the Confederacy and racer from Sugar Rush Speedway in Litwak's Arcade. Twelve years ago, young prodigy Emily Hawks created a way of connecting both of our worlds, but the project was kept as a secret by Starlit's council. Everything was okay until the first half-code kid was born, it rose a fight between a group of Elemental Heroes from the Islands and some people from the arcade, a fight that took a few years, during which great harm was done for both worlds. When the council decided on closing any connections it was too late for it being of any help, still, they insisted on creating a group of Vigilantes to keep a control over these interactions, preventing fights and the strange virus and glitches that began during the battle. But they began to get out of control with the time and anything out of programming began to be considered a problem to be fixed with a reprogram or memory erasing. Connections were now forbidden, half-codes like me were considered no more than mere glitches or viruses. We fought and tried to keep our lives as normal as possible..." She finally allowed herself another long breath. "Then, one night we found out someone else was taking over the Arcade, for how long we had no idea. Bunny and I offered ourselves to find information... We never were able to get back. Someone reprogrammed the whole Arcade and the Vigilantes' security is stronger than it had even been, almost any communication blocked... But it was bigger than our war, it was menacing the rest of the world as well as we overheard a strange cloaked group talking about a plan that would send a signal to make with the city what the reprogram did with the Arcade, except instead of erasing memories, it contained a kind of hypnosis sign. Radio Kids was the Arcade's Rebels' response to the menace, it was sent over their signal to cover it. But it's not over yet, Bunny and I found a way to get back and help them, but we needed Heroes alert in this city and my friend found you." She looked at them, expectantly.

"And why should we believe you?" Gogo pointed out. "Videogame characters? Not even Fred can be so unbelievable."

"S.C said you wouldn't believe, but all I can offer is my word. Anyway, as heroes you would want to meet Bunny and I at Cory's big show tonight. As far as we know, there is a new plan behind the innocent looking music show. We've been planning a counterattack all the week, but we can't get our entire team through the opening we got, that's why we need your help. I have to meet my friends now, but you can stay and think about it. Go to the office and ask Alice if you do need. Hope to see you later!"

But Candi wasn't sure if she would. Vortex and Serenity would always shoot in the most unstable and uncertain hopes… but mostly of the times they were right so she would try. And, in the end, they seemed to be good people; the world needed heroes like them.

"What do you think?" Honey asked her friends, a little bit nervous, as the princess left the room. The girl sounded sincere, but the situation was still strange.

"I think its pure madness!" Wasabi protested. "We shouldn't go."

"C'mon guys! If any game villain is menacing our city, we have to do something!" Fred said.

"How do you know it's a game villain?" Gogo retored. "But, I agree there is something. We should at least check up this show." It wasn't because of anything in Candi's story, but the mention of S.C., an old friend she'd meet a time ago and disappeared as mysteriously as she appeared.

"Hiro, what do you think?" No answer. "Hiro?"

Hiro was watching the fight, he felt something was strange there. For a moment the gray-haired boy looked straight to where the heroes were and Hiro thought the guy's smile reminded him of something or someone else...

"Watch out!" He yelled suddenly, like pushed by an instinct, as the boy in the arena moved his hand, the glove glowing, towards them.

"What's wrong, Hiro?"

"Where are you going?"

"What's wrong?"

The voices followed him as he left the room, just slight conscious of his friends following him and the loud explosion sound that followed. Electrical sparks ran all around, lamps exploding, casino machines going crazy, scared and startled cries all around, while people began to flee.

Hiro continued to run until he got out of the casino and down a set of stairs, when the others finally reached him.

"The boy down there, he has real super-powers!" Fred exclaimed, half shocked, half excited.

"Probably it was just a trick. But he surely was aiming at us." Gogo replied. "I knew we shouldn't thrust that girl!"

"It was not her fault." Hiro said. "I think he followed us here, that's why she was so nervous. We need to meet her tonight, and be prepared to fight."

Just then, the mysterious boy's robot came after them but, without their suits they couldn't fight, so their only choice was to run.

Lightning began to shoot from thin air in their wake, more lamps and various glass windows exploded around. Where was the security now? It was hard to get through the crowd, everyone trying to get out of the shopping.

They were almost at the exit doors, almost the last ones to get out, when their enemy reappeared in front of them, blocking the way, a wall of electricity blocking the exit. The masked boy said nothing, just smirked and raised one gloved hand, sparks flashing from it, but he stopped, his expression turning cold and serious.

"Hey! Do you have any idea how much will cost to fix all this?" A voice protested from behind them.

Everyone else ran the opposite way, but there was a woman standing behind them and the robot was nowhere to be seen.

"Princess Alice." The boy hissed.

"No one call me princess anymore, not since I renounced to the throne. And who are you, Prince of the Storm? You look familiar..."

"This fight is not with you, Wind Mage, get out of my way!" He ordered.

"This is my shopping! You have no rights here! What do you want with people who did nothing to you?"

"It's not your fight." The boy repeat. "But since you're here..."

He once again raised his hand, Alice put herself in front of the group and everyone waited for the next impact, but it never came. Instead, the boy inserted a small chip at the base of his glove, a blue light ran through the entire shopping with a code wave and something began to form before them in a glitch.

Alice's fierce look was substituted by one of pure terror as she stepped back.

"Run!" She ordered, pushing the heroes towards the interior of the place.

"What's…" Hiro began to ask as the glitch began to form a long and blocky creature.

"Run first, questions later." Alice interrupted.

She ran past them and the group followed. The creature began to follow, eating anything loose on its way.

"What is that thing?" Wasabi managed to ask, without being interrupted like Hiro.

"Luckily for you it is just a centipede. It was released through a virtual transmissor that shouldn't even exist. Trust me when I say you don't want it to get you, now follow me."

They ran after the princess, with the centipede just behind. Sometimes lightning interrupted their path and they had to take a detour, until they reached Alice's office.

"Enter." She pushed them inside, closed the door and muttered a few words, creating a white glyph in the wooden surface.

"We'll be safe for a while. So you should be the heroes Bunny has been watching… I'm Alice Windchaser, former princess of the Wind Valley in Starlit, now I run this place." She began to search through the office, to come back with a bracelet to each one. "Reality breaker. Hold you through any reality change and is sometimes useful even when you don't jump. I've programmed them for you all, according with the little Bunny knows." As she said it and they put the bracelets on, a coding wave surrounded each one and their suits formed around them."

"Cool!" Fred exclaimed.

"It may surprise you. Now…" She stopped and everyone could hear the faint blip. Alice began to look in any corner where something small could be hidden, until she found a glowing green sphere. A little too late as the light faded, them it exploded in smoke and light.

They felt the impact like a thin needle in the head and heart, sending a jolt of electricity everywhere else, sapping energy until their consciousness began to fade away.


	3. Awakening

**Not as fast as I expected but faster than my last updates of any story. It was to be ready early but I had troubles on the revision phase, there might still be some errors.**

* * *

Hiro woke up feeling dizzy and light. He opened his eyes slowly, but closed them again as the light reached him. The boy blinked a few times, getting used to it, to finally look around to acknowledge his surroundings.

It was a white room, like from a kind of hospital, but he was trapped inside a glass tube, suspended by a mysterious energy. There were other tubes too, where his friends and a mysterious little girl were also trapped, apparently asleep.

In a corner there was a strange machine, where three people, dressed in white garments that covered from head to toe, worked. Hiro couldn't hear what was said, except for strange murmurs that reached him. He tried to move, but the energy did not allow him more than move his fingers and turn his head slightly. Where were them? The last thing he remembered was the explosion. Who was the girl? She was not with them before. And where was Alice?

One of the figures in white approached him and lightly tapped the glass.

"He's awake." A female voice came through the glass, a little distorted to him.

"Better we finish it now." A male voice replied as a second figure approached.

Hiro was scared by the meaning of those words. He fought against his invisible bonds, but it was in vain. Looking around for any way to escape, he saw the mysterious girl move moving her fingers. She first closed her hands, then opened them back, her eyes still closed, but it was clear she was awakening.

Hiro felt a piercing pain in his head, like a thin blade through his brain and couldn't hold back a scream. A jolt of electricity ran through the rest of his body, like happened in the shopping, but this wave actually hurt.

Through the pain, he could hear the sound of shattering glass and rushed voices he could no longer understand. Then the sound of glass again and he fell to the ground, the pain quickly subsiding.

His mind was confused as he blinked again. The dark-haired girl stood before him, fighting bare-handed against the three figures dressed in white, then she grabbed Hiro by the hand and pushed him towards the exit.

"Who are you? Where are we going?" The boy asked, surprised and confuse.

"Just run. We talk later." She replied without looking back.

Her speed was surprisingly inhuman and he was finding it hard to keep up, but her grip around his wrist was tight and strong. Alarms began to sound in their wake but the girl didn't stop.

"But my friends..." He began to protest.

"It's too late for now. We have to get out of here it is too late for us as well."

"What happened to them?" Hiro began to panic.

"They'll be fine, but you'll see later."

Their run through the hallways was cut short as a group of soldiers in red armors came from the opposite way. For a moment Hiro regret not having any power on his own suit, but the girl wasn't worried.

She let him go and attacked the first soldier, sending him flying the way the group came from with a single, deadly blow. With the unnatural speed, she ran to him and grabbed his gun.

Now well armed, she began to shoot. The soldiers shoot back, but something like an invisible shield protected Hiro and her. The girl aimed to the ceiling and exploded one of the white lamps, with the distraction she grabbed the boy again and ran past the soldiers.

They made various sharp turns, hallway after hallway, until a white light appeared before them. Hiro tried to hold back, but the girl still dragged him forward until they dove into the light.

Hiro felt the stop and blinked, unstably dizzy and fell to the ground. Strong, but light hands helped him to his feet and a low chuckle was heard. He was dragged a little more and forced to sit on a metal bench.

"How do you feel?" A young, female voice asked, slight amused.

"Confuse." He blinked again, to find a girl with bright green eyes looking expectantly at him, in the middle of an empty train station, or so he thought. Everything felt somewhat off. "Where are we?"

"Later. Now you need to rest. Dawn is close and you'll have a busy day tomorrow."

As she said so, he felt a strange, warm sensation where her hand touched his chest and yawned, feeling suddenly sleepy, even through the pain. In a few seconds he was asleep, and if he had any dreams, he couldn't remember when he woke up.

* * *

If Hiro was confuse before, it was nothing compared to when he woke up in the morning, in a room of an old, seemingly otherwise abandoned, hotel in a dark street. But shouldn't it be morning already?

The watch at his bedside table showed midnight, but as Hiro stared at it for a long minute, maybe more, it didn't move. Maybe it was broken?

He left the hotel and began to make his way through the street, the only one for a long way. It came to an end in front of a metal gate, slight open. Hiro hesitated, looking to the two new roads that now went around the building, before deciding to enter.

The place was an arena, like the ones where he used to go Bot Fighting and it wasn't empty. He saw his friends talking in a corner, but he instantly felt something was off.

The boy tried to apparent natural as he approached the group, but couldn't help to feel nervous.

The mysterious girl from yesterday told him it was too late to save his friends, even though they would be okay. But there were them, apparently safe and sound.

"Uh, h-hi guys!" He greeted, his voice showing a little of his nervousness, even though he tried to hide it.

"Hiro!" Honey exclaimed, before hugging him. "We were worried. You wouldn't wake up!"

"I told you he was just being lazy." Go-go replied. "Do you have any idea what time it is?" She asked Hiro, but as he tried to reply she added "The Arcade will open in five minutes!"

"The Arcade?" The boy asked, confuse. What had it to do with anything?

"Are you okay, Hiro?" Honey looked at him, worried.

"Yeah. What's wrong with you two? Where are we? What's happening?"

The group exchanged worried looks.

"What's wrong with _you_?" Go-go asked back. "I know it's our first day, but you should be well aware of the programming."

Programming? Arcade? It couldn't be! Hiro tried to think, but he couldn't even breath right now, memories of the incident flooding him. He wasn't sure if he should believe Candi's words before, but now it all hit him with full force.

They had been trapped inside the Arcade and made part of it, except the strange girl saved him before these people could finish the work. But why? Who were these people? Did they work with the masked guy from the shopping?

He stepped back, slight frightened, but still tried to hide it. It was all ruined when his own being was unstabilized and the world turned into a blur of code around him for a second.

The others watched in shock as Hiro was struck by a glitch.

"Hiro..." Honey Lemon muttered, hands over her mouth, in shock.

"This is not good." Wasabi muttered.

Then another girl approached them. She had dark blonde hair and light-brown eyes, wearing armor designed similar to theirs, but green and with her helmet shaped slight like a dragon head.

"Hey guys, it's time!" She called up, happily. "Are you coming?" And she walked away again, to warn the other groups.

"He shouldn't come." Go-go said, pointing towards Hiro. "It will be better to him and to us all."

"She is right. You should go home and rest." Honey smiled at him. "We will see you after the Arcade close. Just for today." She pleaded.

The boy had no idea of what was happening, but thought his friends were right. It was better for him to stay away and find out where he was and what did happen. Maybe he should look for the girl from yesterday, and taking a rest wasn't the worst of the plans. Even if he slept probably all night, he still felt a bit funny. Finding something to eat wouldn't be bad also, so he nodded.

"Yeah, you're probably right. I'll go home and rest and probably will be better later. Have a good day, guys. See you later!"

With that, Hiro ran outside, but didn't go far. He was beginning to have an idea of what was happening, but his mind kept pushing it aside for how crazy and surreal it sounded. He was unsure about leaving the rest of the gang behind in that unknown world, but staying there he would never find out what was really going on. He was going to find his unknown savior.

But for now he walked back to his temporary home and examined the place. It was almost bare, except for his bed, bedside table and a wardrobe. Hiro tried to take off his armor but it was like it was glued to his body, except for the helmet and gloves. In fact, even his skin felt somehow weird.

Hiro began to search around the rest of the rooms, but mostly of them were locket, the few open ones were completely empty.

As he was checking the last rooms in the first floor, he heard movement and hushed voices somewhere from under him. Hiro ran to the reception and then checked the kitchen, dining room and even to pool area, but there was no one there. The voices kept coming from below, but he couldn't understand them. If the place had a basement, he hadn't seen anything that looked like an entrance.

He pressed an ear to the ground and tried to listen. More than one person went down there and something heavy made of metal was pulled around, there was a knock and someone let out a low curse.

"Bunny!" a boy scolded.

"Sorry." The girl apparently called Bunny, apologized.

The steps began to pull away and Hiro tried to follow them. When he reached the counter in the center the footsteps stopped, but the voices were too low for him to hear now.

The boy looked around, there had to be an entrance to the basement somewhere. He examined the old papers scattered around in search of a map, but there was nothing useful.

Instead he heard new steps, this time in the very lobby. He barely had time to turn around and glimpse a small figure in full black armor before the explosion threw him against the counter, a few things falling to the ground.

The armored figure charged its weapon again while Hiro tried to recover, but two other youths materialized beside him. A boy and a girl, both of apparent sixteen.

The girl was the one who saved him, but wore a bandana with a pair of rabbit ears, similar to Candi's friend, but white with only tips blue. The boy had blond hair and blue eyes, wearing a white shirt, golden jacket, jeans and leather boots, both seemed dressed in the finest quality clothing and wore identical bracelets, silver with twelve sapphire stones, this if Hiro accounted them right.

The blonde boy attacked the knight with his bare hands, making it loose its gun. He looked more like a robot than human in force, but the battle was cut short as the knight drew a sword against his enemy. It was then the girl stepped up, her own sword in hand.

She was lithe, her movements smooth and precise. It was obvious they had been trained to fight and did not belong to that place, wherever it was. The two exchanged blows across the room at an amazing speed but none could hit the other. Then the girl stepped on the ornament that Hiro had dropped and momentarily lost her balance, the tip of the knight's sword lightly hitting her left cheek.

"Nice hit!" She commented, smirking, then kicked him back and marched over, supporting one foot on the rider's chest, preventing him from getting up and pointed her sword against his neck. "But you messed up with the wrong girl."

"Damn Rangers!" The knight whispered, his voice sounding static through the helmet, before activating a sonic wave that sent the girl flying back, luckily in the arms of her companion and ran away.

The blonde boy put his friend on the floor but kept one hand on her shoulder, as if to keep her from doing something.

"An enemy who cannot face a real battle is not worthy of our time." He warned, a little too professional for his age.

"You're right. And this place also has no treasure worthy of our time, let's take a look at the games and go."

No treasure? Hiro studied the two, confused, then approached.

"Are you thieves?!" He certainly was surprised. They seemed powerful and too important for that.

"Pirates would be the correct term." The girl replied. "Hunters of lost treasures would be more specific. Thieves is a very casual term." She started to walk away and her partner followed.

"Hang on!" Hiro called. "You saved my life twice and I don't even know your name."

"It's Angela. And don't make a habit of it or you may end up regretting too late." She warned, then turned back to him for a moment and announced. "Your energy levels are low. You need recharge and urgent repairs."

Hiro had never heard anything like it. She treated him as if he was some kind of malfunctioning machine... Actually, that was similar to the reaction of his other friends. What had happened?

"I'm fine!" He protested. "But if you're so smart, you can tell me what's wrong with my friends?"

But when he began to move, she felt dizzy and had to lean on the counter to keep his balance. He was suddenly more tired than after a whole week awake, his vision was blurry and breathing was becoming a heavy and painful task.

He didn't even notice when his helmet was placed back over his head and he was carried back to a room.

"Meet us in the arenas. I'm sure you have many questions and maybe I'm feeling a little generous to answer some." Angela whispered.

He felt a sudden hush of energy before falling asleep once again.

* * *

"Recharge complete!" A mechanical voice announced as Hiro woke up. He slowly opened up his visor and blinked in the darkness, to find himself back to his room. Really feeling better, he decided to follow the girl's advice and walk down to the arenas. He was feeling a little hungry, but didn't find anything to eat.

It wasn't exactly what Hiro expected. The Bot Fight going on in the arenas was similar to the shopping ones, but with no controllers. Instead, people played the robots, in armors similar to his and his friends' suits, among a few actual robots. Currently, the dragon girl from early was fighting against someone in a dark gray armor, the blackened visors preventing anyone from seeing their faces.

Hiro almost cried when the new rider pulled a serrated blade and sword, in one blow, cut the girl in half. The boy just wasn't more shocked - or might have been - because he realized that, in fact, she really was a robot and as soon as the victory had been announced, she was reassembled. Sitting stunned, the girl took off her helmet, before getting up and leaving the arena.

Angela and her partner watched everything from a half-hidden corner in the stands. Hiro could overhear snippets of conversation as he approached. Apparently the two were suspicious of one of those warriors as an enemy who they apparently were facing. It also raised more questions and he hoped to see them answered.

He tried to approach with caution, but the girl said before he moved too close:

"Don't take one more step, Hamada! For better stay out of sight." The two pirates stood up and began to pull the boy out of the building. "Mind to accompany us in a walk?"

Not that he had much choice.

"What place is this?"

"Bot Fighters. The game was plugged in last night and turned on for the first time this morning." The boy informed him. "We do not know of their intentions, but some of us were captured and reprogrammed here yesterday."

Angela smiled.

"By the way, his name is Adam. And you, Hiro Hamada, was lucky for me to be around or you would be one of them now."

"You mean this is all a game?" The question was more to confirm the theories that he had been forming since this morning.

"An arcade game, to be exact. And you, my friend, is what we call a Glitch, a system failure. You must have felt some problems because of the reprogramming has been started but not finished."

"My armor does not come out, and what you meant yesterday with low battery?"

"You should be a robot. You are in an intermediate stage between the two forms which can be a bit confusing. Don't worry about anything, we take you to someone who can turn you completely back. For now, you should know your Friends are Programs, like everyone else here, they just remember what you and themselves should be in the game and you're lucky they are new here, but if you gets too close again later, they might denounce you."

"Three basic rules keeps our safety here." Adam continued. "While Arcade is open, stay away from the screens and sight of the players. Do not run out of the programming near Programs or they can report you, the same goes for Rangers, but preferably do not make any contact with these. And, of course, be careful not to die outside your game. In here you're able to regenerate, but out there..."

"Game over." The girl added while something thin and pointy pierced his hand. He could still feel the pain.

"Come on. We have a few minutes!" Angela began to pull him again, this time toward a large tunnel in the big wall a few meters ahead. This time Hiro was ready to go.

* * *

 **It wasn't finished as I expected but I'm fine with it. Theactual chapter was a bit too long, so it was separated in two.**


End file.
